1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a live content processing method of a digital broadcast system. More particularly, the present invention relates to a method for providing a client with a playlist of content segments accessible in a live streaming service provided in a Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) adaptive streaming format.
2. Description of the Related Art
In order to provide content to client devices in a way that enables a terminal to adapt to variations in available bandwidth by seamlessly switching while receiving and playing the content, it is necessary to provide the terminal with information on the content related to a playback time and bandwidth for the segments of the content in advance. A file used for transmitting the information on the content is called a Multimedia Presentation Description (MPD) file. In order to properly support the multimedia transmission in a time-varying environment, the MPD file transmitted from a server to a client should be updated as time goes on. In a case of a real time live broadcast, when live content is generated, it is necessary to update the corresponding MPD file.
FIG. 1 is a flowchart illustrating a procedure for processing live content in a server according to related art.
Referring to FIG. 1, when a request for content, of which a broadcast time has passed, is received at step 111, the server verifies availability of the content (i.e. the server verifies whether the content is saved in the server) at step 113. If the content is determined to be available on the server, at step 113, the server transmits the corresponding content to the client at step 115. Otherwise, if the content is not available on the server, the server then transmits an error message to the client at step 117.
In the procedure illustrated in FIG. 1, the client requests the content without awareness of whether the content is currently playable such that, when the segment of the content is available, the server transmits the content segment and, otherwise, the server transmits the reject message. However, such a content processing method results in resource waste and delays in content playback, resulting in degradation of content provision service quality.